On Death and Dying

What’s the prime of your life?
Do you ever worry that the prime of your life has already passed you by – and it didn’t even have the courtesy to let you know as it flew overhead?

They say that life begins at 40, or that 60 is the new 50 – but what’s the truth? What’s the best age to be? To find out, BBC Future scoured the medical literature, examining how everything from your memory to your sex drive changes across the lifetime. And we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. Consider physical fitness. For activities that require short and sudden bursts of energy – like the 100m sprint, shot-put, or javelin – the starting pistol should have fired by your mid-20s, since there is a rapid decline thereafter. Some sports suit older athletes better Yet older athletes perform much better in gruelling “ultra-endurance” events, such as 100km, or 1000km, marathons. At first glance, the mind’s fate is less cheering. Past your 20s, your ability to commit new facts to memory has already seen better days.
American Nurse Today. Physical symptoms in the last 2 to 3 months of life. Here’s a list of some of the things a person goes through as death gets closer.

We also try to give some tips on what can be done to manage these symptoms. Be sure to tell your healthcare team how you are doing. Don’t assume it’s normal to feel bad. There are often things that can be done to help you feel better. Fatigue Scott, age 60, with advanced cancer: “I feel like an engine running out of steam.
Signs of Approaching Death (End of Life)
By William Lamers, M.D. former Medical Consultant, Hospice Foundation of America Note: This is a general picture.

It will vary greatly according to the cause of death, the person's general health, medications and any other significant factors. All dying experiences are unique and influenced by many factors, such as the particular illness and the types of medications being taken, but there are some physical changes that are fairly common. For some, this process may take weeks; for others, only a few days or hours. For most dying persons, activity decreases significcantly in the final days and hours of life. As you hold their hand, you may notice that they feel cold. When a person is just hours from death, breathing often changes from a normal rate and rhythm to a new pattern of several rapid breaths followed by a period of no breathing.

Late Stage and End-of-life Care: Caregiving in the Final Stages of Life. Understanding late-stage care.

The dying process usually begins well before death actually occurs. Death is a personal journey that each individual approaches in their own unique way. Nothing is concrete, nothing is set in stone. There are many paths one can take on this journey but all lead to the same destination. As one comes close to death, a process begins; a journey from the known life of this world to the unknown of what lies ahead.

As that process begins, a person starts on a mental path of discovery, comprehending that death will indeed occur and believing in their own mortality. There are milestones along this journey.
The Dying Process - Signs the Dying Process has Begun. What Good Is Thinking About Death?
In the heart of every parent lives the tightly coiled nightmare that his child will die.

It might spring at logical times—when a toddler runs into the street, say—or it might sneak up in quieter moments. The fear is a helpful evolutionary motivation for parents to protect their children, but it's haunting nonetheless. The ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus advised parents to indulge that fear. “What harm is it, just when you are kissing your little child, to say: Tomorrow you will die?” He wrote in his Discourses. Some might say Epictetus was an asshole. “The Stoics had the insight that the prospect of death can actually make our lives much happier than they would otherwise be,” he says.

He’s a little late to the party. Though the word “stoic” in modern parlance is associated with a lack of feeling, in his book, Irvine argues that the philosophy offers a recipe for happiness, in part by thinking about bad things that might happen to you.
Www.bbc. Explore BBC Earth's unique interactive, personalised just to you. Find out how, since the date of your birth, your life has progressed; including how many times your heart has beaten, and how far you have travelled through space. Investigate how the world around you has changed since you've been alive; from the amount the sea has risen, and the tectonic plates have moved, to the number of earthquakes and volcanoes that have erupted.

Grasp the impact we've had on the planet in your lifetime; from how much fuel and food we've used to the species we've discovered and endangered.